


Monster

by chararii



Series: Blood and Water [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Haruno Sakura, Blood and Gore, Chuunin Exams, Dark Haruno Sakura, Gen, Kiri!Sakura, POV Hyuuga Hinata, Rated For Violence, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:54:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25452724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chararii/pseuds/chararii
Summary: Hinata thought she knew what it meant to be a shinobi and was prepared for the dark and grim reality of her profession.Haruno Sakura quickly taught her otherwise.
Series: Blood and Water [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783150
Comments: 30
Kudos: 314





	Monster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chipichanga](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Chipichanga).



> This is a gift for Chipichanga who made fanart for Into the Depths! I offered them a oneshot of their choice out of gratitude for their amazing art and they were curious about the chuunin exams fight between Sakura and Ino, so here it is.
> 
> Chipi, I hope you like it! It's from Hinata's POV since she had the flashback in the first place and seemed a good choice to fill the observer role. Let me know what you think, yeah? :>

“Oh Hinata-chan! I'm so relieved you're alright.” Hinata looked up from the cot she was resting on only to spot her teacher standing in the doorway, Kiba and Shino hovering behind her. She smiled at her team, and blushed slightly. They had been so worried about her even though she had only tripped on a root. A few scratches. Nothing more.

“Yeah, after Team Crazy came in...” Kiba muttered to himself and Hinata's eyes immediately zeroed in on her teacher. At the mentioned of Team 7, her brows had furrowed and her lips pursed. Something must have happened. She hoped Naruto-kun was alright.

Kurenai-sensei approached Hinata and gently grasped her hands with her own, twisting and turning them to inspect her scraped palms. She tutted disapprovingly, then began changing the bandages.

“...don't know what Sandaime-sama was thinking...,” the older woman murmured to herself. Hinata listened and chewed on the inside of her cheek. She just had to know.

“Is... Naruto-kun...i- is he...?” Hinata blushed furiously and looked down, into her lap. She hated how shy she was. Couldn't even think about the brave blonde boy without losing her words. If she was unable to think of him, how was she supposed to ever strike up a conversation? She truly was a hopeless case.

“Uzumaki-san is alright. Most of the blood wasn't his.” Hinata gaped as her eyes widened and panic bloomed inside her mind.

“B-b-blood?!” she echoed, barely noticing that she had clenched her hands until Kurenai-sensei carefully unfurled them.

“There's no need to worry, Hinata-chan. Uzumaki-san didn't sustain any major injuries.” The woman tried her best to soothe Hinata's racing heartbeat as she stroked the back of her hand.

“Pretty sure that was just collateral,” Kiba grumbled before rubbing his nose as if attempting to rid it of a particularly persistent smell. Kurenai-sensei patted Hinata's arm once, then left her bedside once more.

“The preliminaries are about to begin. You three truly cut it close.” They had. Hinata would have felt responsible for their lacking performance if she had honestly considered being at fault. Yet no matter her own less than desirable abilities, Team 8's performance in combat hadn't even been tested once. No other teams had crossed their path, Hinata hadn't seen any of these beasts that allegedly haunted the Forest of Death.

Their biggest challenge, from the start, had been finding an opposing team. Without a scroll they couldn't pass. After three days of no contact whatsoever, Hinata had begun to worry. If she were disqualified before she even reached the third round, her father... no. Nothing good ever came from thinking about Hyuuga Hiashi. So they marched on, running, tracking, searching. All their efforts amounted to nothing.

On day five, mere hours away from failing the exams, Kiba had suddenly halted. Signalled them to stop. Possible danger ahead. Blood. With a sharp nod, Hinata had activated her byakugan. And promptly gasped.

Below them on the ground, a mere minute or two away from their current position, was a battlefield. Hinata's byakugan was still somewhat underdeveloped so the image was blurry and unclear around the edges. Swallowing audibly, she nodded at Kiba and fell into formation as they sprinted ahead. Only to stumble upon what she could only describe as a massacre.

Five bodies, all dead, littered the undergrowth. Red streaked their immediate surroundings, soaked the grass, covered roots. Hinata covered her nose with a hand, unable to deal with the stench of decay. Maggots already feasted on one of the corpses whose torso was cut wide open, innards spilling onto the floor next to the body. Another missed an arm, a third his head.

“What the fuck...,” Kiba breathed. If Kurenai-sensei were here, she'd scold him for swearing. But she wasn't here. It was only them, three genin, in the same forest as someone who had done _this_.

“We shouldn't linger,” Shino advised evenly, eyes and fade hidden by his glasses and clothes, expression inscrutable. The only hint that gave his underlying unrest away, was the marginally louder buzzing of his kikachu.

“Wait! They have a scroll,” Kiba exclaimed and made his way through the clearing, carefully avoiding any and all remnants of the slaughter. With his thumb and index finger, the Inuzuka plucked a blood-soaked scroll from one of the bodies, holding it aloft for the rest of his team to see.

They had gotten lucky and Hinata was beyond thankful that whatever had been responsible for this hadn't crossed their path.

Hinata shook her head to rid herself of these images as she got off her cot and joined her fellow team members. Their lack of combat engagements came with the obvious advantage that all three of them were rested and ready to fight. Hinata wasn't very confident in her own ability to progress but had faith that both Kiba and Shino would progress to the next round. As long as she delivered a decent performance during the prelims, she would be satisfied.

Team 8 left the infirmary and walked through the hallways, towards the arena. Everybody else was already gathered in the main room, so they didn't encounter anyone on their walk. She was nervous and wrung her hands, mindful of the still sensitive skin. It wouldn't hinder her clan-taught fighting style, but to fight in full view of all her year mates, their sensei, foreign shinobi and even the Hokage himself? As Hyuuga heir she had certain expectations to fulfill. For a moment, she thought of Neji and what he would say if he saw her, then caught herself just in time. They weren't close anymore. Hadn't been for a long time.

Hinata was the last to enter the arena stage, so she didn't really spot it at first. Thoughts preoccupied with memories of her older brother in all but name and how unfairness had twisted their relationship into a bond of one-sided hatred. In the end, what she caught first, was the smell. Like the one from a few hours ago. Copper, sweat, and death.

“Did Hatake not tell her to clean herself up? Honestly,” Kurenai-sensei murmured in disdain, her deep red eyes resting on something Hinata couldn't see. Sidestepping Kiba, she raised her own gaze and searched. She didn't have to search long.

It wasn't Sasuke she spotted first, the pale and sullen boy standing a good few metres away from the rest of his team, arms crossed, glowering at the Sandaime Hokage who was currently giving a speech about Konoha's Will of Fire.

Neither was it Naruto who caught Hinata's attention, his fingers shaking, body coiled as if ready to run at a moment's notice, tension causing his entire form to shake and vibrate.

Hatake-san too, didn't truly stand out, dark and imposing presence standing firm and strong with both feet squared on the ground, lean arms crossed in front of his chest, an impenetrable barrier between his team and everyone else.

No.

What really, truly stood out, was the only female on their team, Haruno Sakura, and the evidence of countless lost lives on her hands. Her face had been scrubbed clean that much was obvious. The rest of her, hadn't. Dried blood in various shades of red and brown stuck to her clothes, skin, hair, even underneath her nails. The blade of the standard sword slung over her back still dripped on the floor.

A vile stench emanated from the girl and Hinata vividly recalled the dead bodies strewn across the clearing, all violently taken apart by a bladed weapon, discarded like trash and left behind with no regard for their futures, hopes or dreams. A girl she had gone to the academy with, never paid much attention to, eventually lost sight of. What had happened to her to cause... this?

“Come on, Hina,” Kiba mumbled quietly and grabbed her by the sleeve to pull her away from Team 7 as far as the confines of the arena allowed. She followed him in a daze, eyes stuck on the spot where the other girl stood, now hidden behind foreign shinobi and their teachers.

“It's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for,” the Inuzuka added with a low growl, much like Hinata remembering the apathetic pink-haired girl that had never fit in with the rest of their class or made any effort whatsoever. She had been unremarkable, and from what Hinata could recall, struggling with taijutsu lessons back in the academy.

But someone who struggled with the more physical aspects of being a ninja didn't come out of that forest dressed in the remains of their opponents.

The rest of the Hokage's explanation didn't get through to Hinata who couldn't help but glance back and forth between what happened in the arena below her and Haruno-san who stuck close to her team not that far away from where Kurenai-sensei had herded her own. She paid attention to the female suna-nin's fight against a Konoha-nin Hinata hadn't encountered before, gasped and winced when one of their team mates brutalised the other.

The red-haired boy's attention had been on Haruno-san the entire time. She decided to ignore him, much like the other males who gravitated around her, followed her lead. Not out of devotion or loyalty, that much was clear. Hinata got the distinct impression that the girl did as she pleased when she pleased and didn't care about the opinions or even plans of those around her. She must have cut her way through that forest with Sasuke and Naruto-kun being too preoccupied with chasing her to have much time for anything else.

“I heard they returned with eight sets of scrolls,” Ino whispered from Hinata's left, pupilless blue eyes fixated on Team 7.

“Haruno was hunting.” Shikamaru relaxed against the barrier as he spoke those words, seemingly unbothered yet body angled just so that he could still follow their movements from the corner of his eye. Hinata had assumed those who hadn't made it, had failed or surrendered. Eight scrolls. Sixteen teams. Fourty-eight lives.

“But she was so... normal,” Chouji said quietly, hand momentarily frozen inside his bag of chips.

“She's never been normal,” his dark-haired teammate replied.

Then:

“Oh _no_.” Hinata's head snapped around to the announcement board, where in bright yellow letters, were the names _Haruno Sakura_ and _Yamanaka Ino_. Horror and relief in equal measure flooded her veins, both of which were quickly replaced by fear. To her left, Ino was petrified. Sweat ran along her brow as her hands formed into fists, eyes wide and afraid.

“Surrender.” Hinata gasped. Team 10's jounin sensei had ground out the words between his teeth, arms in front of his chest, muscles bulging with tension. Haruno-san didn't spare them a single glance as she vaulted over the railing, feet touching solid rock without a single sound.

“Ino, _surrender_ ,” the man repeated himself but all Hinata could focus on was the slow, almost mechanical shake of Ino's head.

“My dad, he... he wants to see me in the finals... I promised,” the blonde rambled feebly, gulped once, then reached for a kunai which she clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white.

“This isn't worth dying for,” Shikamaru hissed. Ino was deaf to his protests. She was braver than Hinata could ever be, she thought, and watched the Yamanaka heir descend the stairs into the arena.

“Hatake, if that one kills my student I am personally going to hang you from the gates.” Shivers ran down Hinata's spine. This was not an idle threat. Fire and smoke entered her nose as the sensei's aura roiled, its intensity directed at the silver-haired male who looked perfectly relaxed. Sasuke gripped the railing as he stared down on his team mate. Naruto-kun shuffled nervously, scratching a spot of dried blood on his cheek.

“She won't.” Nobody was convinced.

Ino shook violently as she held her single kunai in front of her body, facing Haruno-san whose fingers closed around the hilt of her tanto and drew it from its sheath with a slow, drawn-out swishing noise. Everyone in the stands was tense. Ino's sensei especially stood so close to the railing, he was just a single second away from launching himself between the two females. Kurenai-sensei's hand rested on Hinata's shoulder and she could feel the woman's stress through the simple touch.

“Begin!”

The only mercy, was that at least it was over quickly.

The moment the proctor had opened his mouth, Haruno-san dashed forwards. Ino didn't stand a chance. The girl was _fast_ , a mere blur against a background of grey stone, and she showed no hesitation, no compassion.

A shriek signalled the first injury Ino sustained and a thin spray of blood confirmed that theory. Her arm was pierced by Haruno-san's sword, went all the way through, skewering the limb. Ino stared at her limb in horror, mind barely processing the metal stuck in her left arm which she had raised to defend herself. With a single twirl, her attacker then forced the blade upwards, carving a gaping furrow in the blonde's flesh, scraping along bone and coating the ground beneath them a deep glistening red.

Ino screamed.

“What the _hell_ , Hatake,” her sensei barked and leaned forward, only held back by the silver-haired jounin who grabbed him by his collar.

“It's Yamanaka's choice to surrender. Not yours.” Ino's sensei snarled, whirled around, ready to unleash his fury against the masked jounin when Kurenai-sensei stepped in between them.

“Control yourselves!” Another harrowing cry pulled everyone's attention back to what was happening below them. Ino was on the floor, bare knees scraping against rough ground, clutching her blood soaked arm. Tears ran down her face and Hinata's stomach nearly turned upside down when she spotted the clear cut in the blonde's arm. It was wide and deep enough to see through.

Above her, stood Haruno-san like a vengeful spirit, little droplets of blood on her face, teeth bared like a predator.

Ino rolled out of the way of another swipe, barely able to avoid losing her head. Instead, she lost most of her hair.

Haruno-san was on her like a hound and when the blonde tried to scramble away from her, made sure she couldn't. A deafening scream pierced the tense silence of the arena as Haruno-san's sword lodged itself in Ino's ankle. It pinned her in place, cut cleanly through skin, flesh, muscle, bone, even rock.

Snot and tears ran down the genin's face as she hyperventilated, red slick fingers desperately clawing at the blade. She cut her own hand nearly to pieces as she tried and tried to remove the sword and get away. Ino had forgotten that this was no fight to the death. She had forgotten that she had an audience. Forgotten she could surrender.

“Why the fuck is he not calling the match?” Shikamaru demanded loudly, eyes furiously regarding the proctor. Hinata's entire body shook and twitched as she drowned in the pink-haired girl's killing intent, fingers firmly closing around her sensei's hand, nearly crushing it.

“They're no longer children. Yamakana is a shinobi. She has to make her own decisions,” Hatake-san supplied quietly, gaze unmoving, unaffected by the gruesome show of unrestrained violence.

“I'm going to get you fucking court-martialled, Hatake, and if it's the last thing I do!” Hinata flinched at the sudden roar of Ino's sensei who hadn't diverted his attention from their students once. It wasn't supposed to be like this. They weren't supposed to try and _kill_ each other. What about the Will of Fire? The Sandaime's speech? Did none of that mean anything at all?

“INO! INO, GIVE UP!” Kiba yelled with his hands around his mouth. Naruto-kun caught on quickly and together they did their best to deafen the audience, raised their voices higher and higher in a last-ditch effort to penetrate the thick cloud of terror Ino's mind had disappeared in. Frozen like a deer, Hinata watched Ino ruin both her hands on her fellow genin's blade as the latter pulled a handful of senbon from the insides of her soaked-through shirt.

They sailed through the air and met their mark. One sunk into Ino's stomach. Another into her shoulder. A third pierced the skin just above her collarbones, so dangerously close to her neck. Haruno-san flipped the last senbon around as she stalked closer towards Ino who finally, _finally_ managed to pull the sword from the ground with a wail of anguish.

Leaving a red trail, she crawled backwards, left leg trailing uselessly behind her, hands painting bloody prints on her pale rock beneath her. Haruno-san took her time, like someone who was fully aware their prey had nowhere to run. She threw her kunai and nailed Ino right in her back. If she'd been a little more skilled, she would have hit the blonde's spine and paralysed her for life.

This time, when Ino went down, she didn't get up, throat raw from screaming, voice ruined with nothing left to give.

“Winner: Haruno Sakura!” Life returned to the audience with the force of a small hurricane. An entire team of medics came running from the sidelines, carrying a stretcher and various boxes of supplies. Ino's sensei disappeared in a flash and reappeared between the two genin, kunai drawn, ready to massacre Haruno-san if she made a single step out of line. Shikamaru and Chouji ran down the stairs, not giving the pink-haired girl another glance as they brushed past her. Naruto-kun settled down, sweaty and exhausted, back against the wall. Sasuke breathed heavily and didn't even try to hide it anymore.

The only one who was completely unmoved by the chaos, was Haruno-san's own sensei who watched over the happenings with a cold, heavy gaze.

“What... the fuck... is that girl...,” Kiba panted between large gulps of air, tired out from screaming and yelling and slumping over the railing.

“That,” Kurenai-sensei answered darkly, heavy frown marring her beautiful features as her eyes took in the scene before them,

“Is a monster.” Hinata swallowed, stared at the blood – oh kami, so much blood – that stained the floor of the arena and the still form of Ino as she rested on the stretcher, pale, lifeless, cut up like a piece of meat.

“If any on you have to face her during the final round, you will surrender.” Hinata nodded obediently, rubbing her sweaty palms against the hem of her sweater.

“But, Kurenai-sen-,” Kiba complained but was shut down instantly.

“No arguments.” The dark-haired woman stared grimly at the pink-haired young girl whose chest rose and fell heavily with each breath she took. Her fingers twitched and she positively radiated an aura of restless energy combined with such malice, Hinata instinctively took a step behind her teacher.

“That girl doesn't care for your lives and will kill you without a second thought.” She had never heard Kurenai-sensei speak like that before, so angry and thoroughly disgusted.

“Watch yourself around her,” Hinata's teacher added just as Ino was carried away and the proctor growled at Haruno-san to get back onto the stands.

“She's not your friend. She's not your comrade.” The pink-haired genin leapt out of the arena, pupils wide and blown, former jade green eyes just a little bit darker than before.

“Haruno Sakura is your enemy.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sakura was not a happy camper before she met Mei and finally found a place where she (mostly) belonged.


End file.
